A Strategic Impact Map™ is a Storytelling Framework
Creating a solid framework is the very first part of the very first step of my ImpactStory™ Strategy. A Strategic Impact Map™ is that solid framework. It allows you to pull together all the pieces of what you do to tell your most powerful impact story: it connects your vision, mission, programming, and the longer-term and community-level impacts you are working toward.
Watch a 15-minute video intro to the Strategic Impact Map™ framework.
Join us for a live, in-depth, 3-hour workshop where you learning everything you need to know in order to build your very own Strategic Impact Map.™
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“I will never forget my boss’s face after I showed him the work I had done on the impact map and shared with him how I thought it could change our organization. His exact words were, “This is revolutionary!”
Courtney Polk, Executive Director,
Building Goodness Foundation
“We STILL use your innovative Strategic Impact Map as a quick reference for new board members, community outreach, and internal reference. Extraordinarily helpful document. The Nonprofit Network gained clarity, common language, and a stronger organizational structure and vision. We have been able to better communicate to our funders and stakeholders about our growth trajectory and align that with our strategic goals and impact.”
Evelyn Riley, Executive Director,
Dan River Nonprofit Network
A Strategic Impact Map™ Tells the Whole Story
Here’s the story this one-page framework tells:
Your organization was founded to address a community-level need and reach a vision.
This is done by fulfilling a specific mission using a set of one to five strategies.
Each of the strategies includes specific programs and activities you use every day.
Your organization can measure each solution’s productivity as well as your immediate impact.
The people you serve use that immediate impact to make longer-term change in their lives.
Over time, and together with the other work being done in your community, this leads to community-level impact. This is ‘moving the needle’ and results in benefits to the whole community.
“I want to thank you again for the Strategic Impact Map workshop you led. Our organization used your recommendation to consolidate some of our core strategies, cutting them down from 5 to 3, and are using the Strategic Impact Map to guide data tracking. I know you’re on a personal mission to help improve the work of the local non-profit sector, so I want to make sure you know that you’re fulfilling your goals.”
Tyler Herman, Manager of Agency Relations and Programs,
Blue Ridge Area Food Bank
Useful and actionable…whenever you need it
Unlike traditional frameworks, like Logic Models or Theory of Change which are usually created for grant applications, a Strategic Impact Map is useful and actionable every day.
Once created, a Strategic Impact Map will allow you to:
Clearly communicate exactly how your organization is addressing community-level needs.
Be clear about the specific impacts intended by fulfilling your Mission.
Identify the key data that reflect successful programming, both in the reach of your work, as well as in the value and success for the people served.
Help you articulate the Return on Investment of your organization’s work to funders and stakeholders.
Identify the data your organizational leadership should be tracking in dashboards.
Keep your staff focused on the most important and immediate impacts.
Focus your organizational leadership on the real information on strengths and weakness of programming when doing strategic planning.
Provide common and simple language for grant writing, communications, and marketing.
“Our strategic impact maps have had a very positive effect on how our organization looks at measurable outcomes and the tools by which we can measure our accomplishments or identify areas where the results were not in alignment with our intentions. We review them yearly to ensure we are focused on the right goals and measures. It has helped to give our staff a common language and break down silos so we can better understand one another’s intention, goals, activities and outcomes.”
Ginger Dillard, Director of Advocacy Services,
Jefferson Area Board on Aging
“We have used the Strategic Impact Map to build our departmental goals and create action plans that will help us achieve those goals. Piedmont Housing Alliance has been able to institute an agency-wide Outcome Measurement and Program Evaluation Plan…we are getting real-time data from our clients that we are using to improve and refine our services and recognize staff’s excellent service.”
Karen Klick, Past Acting Director,
Piedmont Housing Alliance
“Now that our staff has a common understanding of how useful the Strategic Impact map approach is, we will be able to enrich our existing routines for data collection with more attention to using data to show why what we do is important.”
Leigh Ann Carver, Program Director of Communications & Advancement,
Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at the University of Virginia
What’s included in the workshop
This 3-hour, live, interactive workshop teaches you everything you need to know to create your own Strategic Impact Map™. Leave with:
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A deep understanding of all the parts of a Strategic Impact Map™.
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An outline of the Solutions your organization uses. (This is the most important part of creating a Strategic Impact Map™!)
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A detailed guide for creating a Strategic Impact Map™ at your organization (sold separately for $150, but free when you register for the workshop).
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A case study that gives you a concrete example on which to base your Strategic Impact Map™.
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Templates in Word you can use for creating your own Strategic Impact Map™.
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A new group of colleagues, because we all need a community of like-minded peers to support our work.
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A connection to the ImpactStory Coaches. We are the seasoned program-development-evaluation-data-storytelling consultants you need, right in your back pocket. We are here to bring order to the overwhelm of figuring out how to capture and use your impact to move people to action.
FAQs
“We’ve been working with our evaluation framework and logic model for years. We were reluctant to take the class because of feeling stuck and that our evaluation framework had been overworked. We came out with fresh momentum and energy and concrete results.”
Dolly Joseph, Past Program Director,
Computers4Kids
“This course was a great opportunity to identify why the work we do really matters. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught in the day-to-day details and make assumptions about our impact. This series provides a framework for truly identifying the true grade and impact of our efforts. Thank you!”
Heather Mott, Director of Philanthropy and Communications,
Camp Holiday Trails
“The Strategic Impact Map course with Maryfrances has been incredibly helpful. It has given us a chance to step back and evaluate how our programs are achieving our mission. I would highly recommend this session to any organization.”
Waverly Davis, Past Director of Communications and Engagement,
Community Investment Collaborative